Tulane’s rushing game has gotten better - but by inches, not miles - in recent weeks. The passing game has carried what little offense the Green Wave has mustered in the first five games.

So when the Green Wave won its first game last Saturday against SMU with big passing plays it wasn't a huge surprise.

But who caught passes was.

Fifth-year quarterback Ryan Griffin spread his 302 passing yards around to eight receivers last Saturday. Redshirt freshman Marc Edwards established a career-best
with two catches for 96 yards. One of those was a 79-yard scoring catch that gave both him and Griffin their longest touchdown plays at Tulane. Xavier Rush caught two critical passes on the last-minute, game-winning drive.

Justyn Shackleford caught three passes for 43 yards. Running back Rob
Kelley got in on the fun with four catches for 64 yards and the
variety of options helped keep the chains moving against the Mustangs.

As Tulane moves on to UTEP for a road game Saturday, it is expected to rely on a possession passing game under Griffin.

“Those guys have kind of been working on that level. I wasn’t surprised,” receivers coach Keith Williams said of the unit. “I was happy for them cause of the hard work and what I thought they could do finally came out in the game. But those guys have been working to that degree. It’s just been circumstantial that it hasn’t happened prior to that point. As a program, we weren’t surprised.”

The playbook -– passing included -– expanded with the return of Griffin and his superior knowledge of the system. It was Griffin’s first game since Sept. 8 when he went out with a shoulder injury versus Tulsa.

“We have been working with him all summer and the timing was there,” Rush said. “Just to see in his senior year that he could make a comeback from a shoulder injury like that in his throwing arm – it was exciting. I was more excited for him than just for us.”

Rush had a season-high 55 receiving yards against SMU and made two crucial catches on the game-winning drive.

“Every day they come in and they want to get better,” Williams said. “It sounds corny, it’s a cliché but when taken to heart you can see the results of that mentality and those guys have it everyday. They want to get better by the end of that practice. You put a stack together of those steady improvements together and at one point, it’s going to show.”

Maybe the best news was that that it wasn’t just Ryan Grant, who leads the team with 25 catches for 359 yards, and Shackleford (second with 20 catches for 277 yards) making all the big catches against SMU.

“Grant and Shackleford have been playing well pretty much all year,” Tulane Coach Curtis Johnson said. “Then all of the sudden we’re getting help from Edwards and Rush and (Ryan) Comardelle and (Wilson) Van Hooser is doing some things so we are getting some help. We are playing better at that position.”

Rush said the improvements have come in part off the field – in the film room. Johnson joked at the beginning of the season that the players treated film work like highlight reel time. Clearly that’s not the case now.

“Everybody is more polished up,” Rush said. “I’m not saying it wasn’t there last year, but it’s more emphasized this year. When we watch film, we don’t just watch film to say hey, we got open and caught the ball. We watch film and say, we got open and we caught the ball but what can we do to get more open and break that tackle, make that move. It’s more detailed looking at yourself in a microscopic way.”

Big plays defined the passing game against SMU. But Tulane is hopeful it can glean a little more of a possession passing game against the Miners. It logged 11 first downs against SMU in the passing game and only two from the ground game.

“That’s what we’ve been leaning on a little bit — just our passing game,” Johnson said. “Short passes. We’re getting it to Kelley, getting it to the backs. We’re trying to get some continuity.”